Home care worker tells MPs care work is ‘not unskilled’

A care worker told MPs in the House of Commons they need to ditch the perception that care work is unskilled, saying “it is simply not true”.

Chevonne Baker, who works for Right at Home Basingstoke spoke to the Health and Social Care Committee chaired by MP Jeremy Hunt, giving her recommendations for improving retention in the social care sector.

The committee was examining the issues of retention, recruitment and training in health and social care.

Ms Baker believes the label that is often given to care workers as ‘low-skilled’ or ‘unskilled’ is very bad for the profession and makes people feel they are not valued. She said the “hardest challenge at the moment is there are not enough of us to go around” as the demand for care workers is so high.

She added: “I think care has a bit of a bad reputation—it has a bit of a dirty name —which is not helped by the media only showing the negative side. You hear when things go wrong, when stories go haywire, and we are deemed as unskilled workers, which simply is not true. I am trained to be able to walk into a number of different circumstances and situations and to ensure my clients get the best care they deserve.

“Administering care in people’s homes means we are able to monitor their care and their situations, and we can spot when they are not quite themselves and when things start to go wrong, so we can contact health care professionals early to minimise any of the effects afterwards. We play a vital role in keeping people at home, keeping them safe, keeping the NHS under slightly less pressure and trying to keep hospitals a bit freer.

“We do an amazing job, but we are still deemed as unskilled and unworthy of any accolade or acclaim that other health care professionals receive.”

To read the full story visit homecare.co.uk